Hot And Cold

In The City

Boys pace the pavement
in sweat darkened T-shirts.
Girls with pink hair huddle on the curb.
School's out.


In The Country

She wears red fox around her neck
to keep her warm.
She drinks wine with musicians in the mountains
who make music that will outlive them
and the fire they sit around.

The Scout

The barbed wire grapples and snags

like expectation and life gone astray

but it doesn't hurt if you can get away.

Smoke drifts closer and the dogs bray.
Hand-spun cotton but no lingerie,
practical shoes adorn bare legs.
It won't hurt if she gets away.

Photo by Tom Chambers

The image prompt comes from Magpie Tales a blog dedicated to honing the craft of writers and poets and keeping the muse alive, even when it has been ignored and neglected. For me, this image was fraught with contradiction from the barren landscape and barbed wire to the casual expression on the face of the runner, as if someone had just called her name, or asked her a question. She isn't dirty and she isn't sweating, yet she runs. Like a poem, or a short story, it leaves us half circle. The ending is ours to compose.